How to Help an Artist

January 19

Have It Read to Me

You can help someone who is hungry by giving them a fish.

Or you could help them even more by teaching them to fish.

Or you could hurt them considerably by using the whole giving-a-fish-vs-teaching-to-fish thing as a premise for a philosophical debate on the subject of ethics and efficacy.

But if you want to help an artist, you can’t make their art for them. You can’t cajole them into writing for themselves. Can’t duct tape the brush to their hand, or make them finally write the last 13 pages of their screenplay.

Because anything you did to help would ultimately stop them from becoming the artist they were meant to become.

You can help them, though. You can become an artist yourself, working past your own inhibition, fighting through all the struggles of making something out of nothing, becoming an example of possibility.

So will you lend a hand?

Thank you—let’s have a great day.

Morning Reading is a daily email to help center yourself, reflect, and prepare for the day. It’s sent with love from your friend, Zach in Austin, Texas. He even drew the logo himself.

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